Sunday, March 22, 2009

From the Sketchbook, Bones of the Earth, a study, 3/20/2009 (the white circle was added yesterday on the 21st). Acrylic on sketchbook paper with Cretacolor pencils.

Yesterday was a very productive day of creativity! Several works in progress were finished, new work started and some of them were seen through to the end, a few new things are still in progress...it was a good "play day"...my hands...it was a day to take a break from writing, since the last three weekends I have been immersed in my novel, Dusty Waters, and getting her ready for publishing (a new proof is being ordered, the book should be on sale by the end of March!)

It's been a long time since I worked on a canvas with any satisfaction, I've been content with paper, and not having to fight with the process of stretching my own, or the expense of buying pre-made canvases in the standard rectangle sizes...well...it's nice to see the art store carrying a variety of shapes, sizes, and clean edges. I pulled out these little canvases that I had stretched ages ago...I dabbled on one about a month ago, hated it and left it sitting looking unfinished and forlorn...then I painted over it, and messed about a bit, set it aside...still uncertain, so I pulled out another and started slopping paint around, didn't like that either...the colors were nice...I mushed them together, then took a piece of mat board and pressed it on the surface, pulled it off...oh, that I liked, so I did it again, different spot...

Go!, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 9

Then I did it with another scrap to the other canvas...hey, now...the colors were doing that nifty thing that I like about monotypes...and the ghost pattern of the rectangle and squares gave me my windows...and then I dug out my cardboard rings leftover from packing tape (normal people throw this part out once the tape is gone, not me, I save the damn things just for this sort of thing!) I squished the circle into the wet paint and made the celestial bodies that repeat themselves in my work...painted the edge of one and stamped it...

Celestial Spring, the Phases of the Sun and Moon, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 8

I had a lot of fun...leftover paint on the mat board was pressed on paper in my sketchbook, overlapping textures and shapes...varying impasto with watered down color...once things started to dry, I began to draw on them...

Then I retrieved that little crumpled paper that I've been fussing over on the drawing board upstairs for several weeks...I scumbled black acrylic paint on another canvas, and then slathered paint on the back of the paper and stuck it on the canvas...acrylic paint makes good glue in a pinch...and then I waited for it to dry on there...well, this morning I've been splashing and touching up...so what started like this...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

My love for the color blue...again...Winter's Night, March 2, 2009 (not too many of them left this season!) Mixed media, an acrylic undercoat with lots of heavy brush strokes, Cretacolor color pencil, watercolor, and pencil...a splash here, a splash there...a bit of fooling about making textures...it's just a little bit of a thing, about 7 x 3 or so...I like the long narrow shapes...

Look inside for a sneak peek!

About Me

I'm an artist, photographer, and a writer, I live in an old farmhouse on top of a windswept hill with my Fred, our son, and currently five cats. Please contact me if you would like permission to use my artwork or photographs, JUST ASK, I don't bite.

I tend to Tumble around too...

Followers

The Fractured Hues of White Light

My new novel, released May 2010

Dusty Waters, A Ghost Story

My first published novel.

Silly Kitty Picture

Willy Big and Tiggy Pooh...BFF!

Me and Fibromyalgia...the good news is, it's not going to kill me.

I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2007 after years of being told my illness was all in my head. My Fibro is everyday fatigue with body aches, mostly tolerable, but when I have a flare-up, which can be triggered by stress, hormones, or being over tired from over-doing it, I get the full body pain, including chest pains (yes, these are scary, like an elephant standing on my chest.) Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to take a breath, but I feel breathless, I just do yoga and breathing exercises to stretch and breathe to ease through the worst of it, NSAIDs help to cut the pain, and naps are always a necessary thing when needed (but hard to do while at the day job!) It's a balancing act to manage, I take advantage of the good days, lay low on the bad ones, and very often, push through in spite of the bad days...some mornings I wish I could stay in bed, but I'm glad that I get up and about, very often 'the kinks' work themselves out. I refuse to take the recommended pharmaceutical band-aids on the market, I tried one once, and I don't like feeling like a zombie. I keep active with my creativity, I think that's the key to my overcoming this obstacle every day...and I have my Fred and our son, five cats, and one dog named Max.